Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 7.djvu/255

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10 S. VII. MARCH 16, 1907.] NOTES AND QUERIES.


207


(4 S. ix. 138, 307). William Talman had charge of the buildings at Hampton Court under Wren, and is believed to have died about 1700. There is a letter from him to Wren in the Crofton Croker MSS. dated 12 Sept., 1699, which is printed in The Builder, 1849, vii. 327.

John Talman, his son, travelled in Italy with Kent, and appears to have resided much abroad. He brought Giuseppe Gri- soni, the artist, to England in 1715, where he remained until 1728, according to Nagler. Thomas Madox in his epistolary discourse concerning the most ancient Great Roll of the Exchequer, commonly styled the Quinto Regis Stephani, printed at the end of his ancient ' Dialogue concerning the Ex- chequer ' (1758), speaks of Talman as " that famous man John Talman, jun.,. . . . a very great architect and limner, who was very useful to me."

Nagler says that William Talman died about 1690, which is clearly an error, and adds : " Sein Sohn war Dilettant, und besass eine vorzugliche Kunstsammlung."

John Talman addressed a letter from Florence, dated 2 March, 1709/10, to Dr. Aldrich, Dean of Christchurch, recommend- ing the purchase of the fine collection of drawings of the Bishop of Arezzo formed by Father Resta, a Milanese of the Oratory of St. Philip Neri at Rome. This letter was printed by Vertue, who says in a note :

" This collection was purchased, I think, by Lord Somers ; and Mr. Richardson, painter, collated, purchased, and exchanged many, which were sold and dispersed in his sale.

" N.B. Mr. Talman was a gentleman of fortune, arid \vas many years in Italy; he copied very accurately, in water colors, the inside of churches, marbles, &c. He was afterwards admitted a member of the Society of Antiquaries in London, for whom he made several very fine drawings, many of which he presented to the Society."

There are two drawings by Talman in the Print-Room of the British Museum : one of a jewelled tiara at the Vatican, and the other of a doge's cap at Venice. He was an accomplished draughtsman, but does not appear to have practised as an architect at least no buildings are attributed to him ; but Walpole (ii. 241-2) says :

" He resided much in Italy, and made a large collection ot prints and drawings, particularly of churches and altars, many of which were clone bv himself."

I am inclined to think from this descrip- tion that Talman may have amused himself by making designs for altars in churches, but did not undertake the more onerous work of designing buildings. Talman died


in 1726, and his effects were sold in the following year (Nichols, ' Lit. Anec.,' vi. 159-60). JOHN HEBB.


WE must request correspondents desiring in- formation on family matters of only private interest to affix their names and addresses to their queries, in order that answers may be sent to them direct.


PANTALOONS v . TROUSERS. In the fourth volume of Mr. Calthrop's ' English Costume ' it is said that Brummell invented black trousers buttoned at the ankle, his wearing of which in the evening made trousers more popular than knee-breeches. Is there foun- dation for such a statement ? It seems to describe pantaloons, and then to treat the name of trousers as applicable to them. The wearing of trousers in place of panta- loons was a social crime. As an allowable alternative to breeches they are still per- missible, though rare. P. I. T.

[Much on pantaloons and trousers will be found in ' N. & Q.' An editorial note at 3 S. v. 136 gave quotations from Ben Jonson and from Beaumont and Fletcher for tr&itsex and troxxerx, but these, like the troiczerxoi 1741, quoted at p. 220 of the same volume, differed from the modern garment so called. The third division of the article ' Pantaloon ' in the 'N. E. D.' deals with the word as applied to a garment, the first meaning being defined as "a kind of breeches or trousers in fashion for some time after the Restoration." This usage is marked obsolete, but the third definition applies to the point raised by P. I. T. : "A tight-fitting kind of trousers fastened with ribbons or buttons below the calf, or, later, by straps passing under the boots, which were introduced late in the 18th c., and began to supersede knee-breeches," the earliest quotation in this sense being from Charlotte Smith

in 1798 : "He was pantalooned and waistcoated

after the very newest fashion." The Retrospective Review, xii. 25 (1825), stated that " in October, 1812, an order was made by St. John's and Trinity College, that every young man who appeared in. Hall or Chapel in pantaloons or trowsers, should be considered as absent." The prejudice against trousers was not, however, confined to the heads of an ancient university, for at 9 S. ix. 489 it appears that the founders of Bethel Chapel, Cambridge Street, Sheffield, in 1820, inserted a clause in the trust deed that " under no circumstances whatever shall any preacher be allowed to occupy the pulpit who wears trousers." Even this penalty was not a sufficient punishment in the minds of some people, the same page of 'N. & Q.' relating that the Rev. Hugh Bourne, one of the two founders of the Primitive Methodist Connexion, said of his co- founder, "That trousers - wearing, beer -drinking Clowes will never get to heaven." In addition to the above references to 'N. & Q.' see 5 S. xii. 365, 405, 434, 446, 514 ; 6 S. i. 26, 45, 446, 505, 525 ; ii. 9, 54, 94, 144 ; iv. 37, 215, 316 ; ix. 155 ; 8 S. ii. 488 ; 9 S. iii. 126, 274 ; ix. 268, 415 ; 10 S. vi. 86, 157, 255.]